Hormones, ADHD, and Why “Just Push Through” Backfires

Many women are training consistently and still feel exhausted, inflamed, and unmotivated.

This is often framed as a mindset issue. In reality, it is a physiological mismatch.

In this conversation with Adele, a women’s health practitioner and cyclical living guide, we explored how hormones shape energy, recovery, and decision making — and why the dominant training model fails so many women.

The Research Gap

Most exercise and health research is based on male physiology. When women are included, cycles are often suppressed with hormonal contraception to reduce variability. The result is a body of evidence that assumes consistency where none exists.

Women experience daily hormonal shifts. This makes us harder and more expensive to study. So instead of building better models, the industry built simpler ones and applied them universally.

The cost of that decision shows up in burnout, hormonal disruption, and loss of trust in the body.

The Key Hormones at Play

Oestrogen rises after menstruation, peaks around ovulation, and supports strength, muscle building, and recovery. Progesterone appears only if ovulation occurs and plays a critical role in nervous system regulation, sleep, and cardiovascular health.

Cortisol and insulin sit at the top of the hormonal hierarchy. When stress is high and recovery is low, cortisol will override other hormonal processes, even converting progesterone into more cortisol to prioritise survival.

This is why constant high intensity training layered onto a stressful life can disrupt cycles, flatten energy, and stall progress.

ADHD, Hormones, and Burnout Cycles

For women with ADHD, hormonal shifts can intensify traits. Peak oestrogen may feel energising for some and destabilising for others. Many ADHD women experience boom and bust patterns, especially when motivation spikes mid cycle.

Medication can further complicate this by masking hunger and fatigue cues, making it harder to detect depletion until burnout hits.

This makes tuning in non negotiable.

Why Synthetic Hormones Do Not Replicate the Cycle

Hormonal contraception suppresses ovulation by shutting down communication between the brain and ovaries. Synthetic hormones do not mimic the natural ebb and flow of oestrogen and progesterone, and progestins can behave very differently in the body.

This does not make contraception wrong. It does make informed choice essential.

Women on the pill, pregnant, postpartum, or without a womb can still live cyclically by working with broader biological rhythms, including lunar cycles, but the internal signals will be different.

What Coaches and Women Can Do Differently

Training smart starts with awareness.

Tracking the cycle.

Observing energy, mood, and recovery.

Adjusting intensity instead of forcing consistency.

Effective coaching offers options, not commands. It invites women to choose based on capacity rather than compliance.

Cyclical training is not a niche concept. Even male athletes periodise their programmes. Women simply have an internal rhythm that already exists.

Listening to it is not weakness. It is precision.

If effort keeps costing more and delivering less, it’s time to change the model — not the woman.

Seema Chopra works with high-performing women to train intelligently, recover well, and sustain performance without burnout